Think Big

Democritus said, “Happiness resides not in possessions and not in gold, the feeling of happiness dwells in the soul.”

Aristotle said, “To live happily is an inward power of the soul.”

Anne Frank said, “Think of all the beauty that’s still left in and around you and be happy.”

Allan Chalmers said, “Happiness is grand essentials and that is something to do, something to love and something to hope for.”

All four of the above quotes are quite accurate. Author Allan K. Chalmers, concentration camp Holocaust child Anne Frank, philosophers Aristotle and Democritus all basically reiterate the same feelings on happiness. Happiness is mostly inward and not so much outward for each person.

Many of us find happiness in simple and plain things that happen to us daily. Some may see a sunset, a rainbow, beautiful clouds, or just feel especially content that day. Some may buy something material that they have yearned for during a long period of time. Some may have a child attain a college degree, get engaged and married or become a grandparent. Some may be looking forward to traveling to a place they have always dreamed of seeing. Some may start a new hobby or even become employed at a company they always wanted to work for.

Others may become retired from their jobs and see great happiness in being able to not wake up early to work; others may be thinking of remodeling their homes or even buying new furniture to perk up their surroundings.

Each of us has the capacity to feel happiness, maybe not every day of the week, but often enough to really think of themselves as happy. Others may have gotten a clean bill of health from their doctor and feel that this is the greatest happiness at this moment in time.

So there are degrees of happiness and we all desire this feeling to overtake us.

Anyone who starts to ballroom dance need not view Dancing With The Stars on television and envision him or herself up there. This is all hype and lots of seven hour days training for this event. Many of the stars who do this have had many accidents and illnesses trying to accomplish this dancing in a few weeks. Whereas, we ballroom dancers who have been attempting this for many years know that learning to dance and to excel in it is not designed to do it for forty some hours per week for five weeks or so and then to perform as if their life depended on it. They also rely on the opinions of three judges who sit there and decide their fate.

Real ballroom dancing is not run this way. When one decides to go into competition at the dance studio, he or she may take an extra lesson or two per week to get in shape and to learn, but many times they cannot afford the extra lessons. Therefore, they have to wait until they have been skilled in the many hours it takes to do competition work.

Sometimes, this takes several years before one is ready to execute and accomplish this feat. Feat it is done with our feet. DWTS makes it seem that to be a good dancer you must be able to come out there in a skimpy outfit, men included, that you have to-do fancy footwork, that you are not qualified to perform and that you have to smile until your face freezes. Also, that you have to take the sometimes sarcastic, caustic and vitriolic words spewed by the so called judges. One wonders if these judges could have ever fulfilled themselves with what they expect from these star performers so early in the competition or even later on towards the end of the series.

These judges judge not always with knowledge, discernment and accuracy. Many of them say things to get a smile, a boo, a roar from the attending audience. They do not always care to be guiding the dancer into a better mode, they sometimes want to rile up the dancer. They want to irritate and annoy the audience into a negative reaction because they then get noticed for being rude, funny or obnoxious. Other times, the judges are really sweet, too sweet to certain amateur dancers that dance opposite the professionals.

This makes ratings for the show to rise and lots of talk about them and maybe they will even get noticed and written up in People magazine.

This is not what ballroom dancing is all about.

 Many other sports can deliver happiness too and even though with most of them, you need not dress in fancy clothing, you still wear something appropriate for the sport and any competing you may attempt. Happiness comes in so many sizes, so many happenings and so many ways, we have to be available to accept it, love it, honor it and be thankful for it. Happiness is an important part of life that is necessary for our total existence.

In his book called Think Big, Dr.Benjamin Carson tells us to “recognize the full potential of our life.” By this he “means you will attain a life that is rewarding, significant and more fruitful than you ever thought possible.”

Think Big.